Snowboarding is a popular winter sport whose participants, generally called snowboarders, descend a snow covered mountain on a snowboard. A snowboarder is affixed to his or her snowboard by securing the boots worn by the snowboarder within snowboard bindings mounted to the snowboard.
One conventional type of snowboard binding is a freestyle soft boot style binding that typically includes a high-back plate, base and straps. The high-back plate consists essentially of an upright back piece extending from a heel portion of the binding and used by a snowboarder to apply pressure to the heel-side of the board.
The base provides a surface on which a snowboarder's boot is supported and has through-holes corresponding to threaded inserts in the snowboard through which fasteners extend to secure the binding to the snowboard. Standard snowboard binding-to-board mounting configurations include either three inserts or four inserts. A binding base can include a through-hole configuration to support mounting to a snowboard having a three-insert configuration, a four-insert configuration or both. The through-hole configuration of these conventional bindings allows for rotational adjustment of the binding relative to the snowboard.
The straps typically include two straps, an ankle strap and a toe strap, each having a ratcheting buckle that allows incremental tightening of the straps to secure the boot to the binding. When properly tightened, the ankle strap holds down the heel and the toe strap holds down the toe. Some strap bindings also have a third strap on the high-back plate commonly called a shin strap which gives additional support and aids in toe side turns.
As used herein, “snowboard binding” refers generally to the freestyle soft boot style binding as described above, which is used by most recreational riders, as opposed to the “click in” hard boot variety.
“Canting” or “cant” refers to the tilt, or angular deviation parallel, of the snowboarder's foot, as represented by the bottom surface of the boot, with respect to the snowboard's top surface, where the cant angle is measured transverse to an axis defined by an inner longitudinal edge of the binding base. The cant of a snowboard binding is independent from and should not be confused with the rotational adjustment of the binding with respect to the snowboard surface.
Canting a snowboarder's feet or boots with respect to the snowboard has proven desirable as a method of increasing the snowboarder's comfort when riding a snowboard by decreasing the amount of bending at the ankles and knees. More specifically, canting reduces a snowboarder's fatigue and improves a snowboarder's balance while snowboarding because the cant places the snowboarder in a more ergonomic position.
Canting has been achieved in a variety of ways. One known method involves mounting a flexible spacer or angled wedge-like element to the surface of the snowboard between the binding and the snowboard. Attaching the binding to the element results in the binding being angled with respect to the surface of the snowboard.
This method has several drawbacks. For example, the wedge-like element must be sufficiently thick and robust to compensate for pressures applied to it by the snowboarder during use of the snowboard. Also, a binding attached to the element is lifted or raised above the surface of the snowboard. Lifting the binding above the snowboard in this manner results in over-elevation of the boot with respect to the board. Over-elevation can reduce the snowboarder's perception of sensations vis-à-vis the board.
Another method involves a binding specifically configured to house a captive screw attached to a movable element. Adjustment of the screw in turn adjusts the element to provide canting of the boot. While this system may reduce the effect of over-elevation, as with most integrated canting systems, this canting system may only be used with one specially designed binding.
Another method involves forming angled footprints in the top surface of a board. However this method does not allow for adjustment of the canting angle. This method also does not provide a rigid connection to the board through the binding, which can result in a loss of power transmission from the snowboarder to the edge of the board. In addition, this method changes the geometry of the board, which can be undesirable.
It would be desirable to provide an approach that addresses these drawbacks.